Two nominations for Sookio in SME Cambridgeshire Business Awards

We're delighted to announce that we are a finalist in two categories at the 2018 SME Cambridgeshire Business Awards. With the ceremony taking place the same week as our 10th birthday, it'll be a busy week. Wish us luck!

What are we up for?

Woodfines Business of the Year Less than 50 Employees

This award will go to the business that can show outstanding initiative, boldness and imagination in the enterprise, as well as sound management practices. Entrants to this award will be expected to demonstrate sustainable growth combined with a degree of commercial success that is exceptional for the size of the business.

Anglia Ruskin University Business Innovation

Innovation in your business means doing something new, different, smarter or better that will make a positive difference. Innovation therefore ranges from implementing a time-saving office procedure to a brand new product.

What's prompted the nominations?

Well, there's been a lot going on...

Our Director, Sue Keogh, has always had a vision of a creative hub, where we could work closely with other creative professionals and where the environment was more conducive to creative work than a typical dreary office space.

Our move to the six-room premises on Mill Road in Cambridge gave us this opportunity. After a big refit, it is now transformed, and in turn has transformed the way we work. We can offer an even better service to clients and work more effectively too. Above all, it's helping us grow.

So now at Sookio HQ you’ll find:

A soundproof studio, where we shoot our own content and hire the space to photographers, podcasters and filmmakers

A beautiful meeting room which we use ourselves and hire out for training, coaching and meetings, plus a kitchen and breakout space for informal meetings

Trusted partners in animation, video and web design

A large, bright room for the Sookio team, with lovely views out of the window for inspiration – a more creative space with room to grow

Room to offer work experience placements (at last!) and for freelancers to come and work in the same room as us instead of remotely

Space to film and edit Sookio School, a new range of online courses launching this spring.

Over the last couple of years we've really refined our proposition too.

We've broadened our scope. Our business has grown around website copywriting, social media management and ongoing website content. But digital moves fast, and it felt like something was missing – a more visual element.

Collaborations with partners in video, animation and design means we can take on larger-scale projects in which the whole team can get involved.

So for example a video project will need a script, social media strategy and campaign, plus pay-per-click advertising and landing page copy. A whitepaper will need beautiful design elements to create a downloadable PDF. Social media channels will need original content like infographics and blog posts.

We've sharpened our focus. At the same time as offering a broader range of content services, we made a clear decision about what were NOT doing.

We’re not a PR agency. We don’t build websites. Instead, we partner with specialists in these fields. This has worked brilliantly for us, because we are able to plug the gap for other agencies or in-house marketing teams. Most agencies tend to focus on web development or PR first and foremost, with content as an afterthought, whereas for us, it’s all about the content. Always about the content!

With the awards ceremony and our birthday celebrations coming up, we'll have lots to celebrate this June. Wish us luck!